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Braves Renew Francoeur’s Contract
Written by Colin on March 4, 2008 – 11:11 amThe Braves renewed Jeff Francoeur’s contract unilaterally yesterday – meaning he’ll make $460,000 next year. They did so after meeting with his agent and trying to see if they could hammer out a long-term deal first, but they’re apparently too far apart on terms to sign him to a long-term deal just yet.
Now in our opinion, that puts Francoeur as one of the most underpaid outfielders in the history of the game. He’s really one of the brightest prospects we’ve had come up since Chipper Jones (along with McCann) and we need to sign him long-term. We signed McCann to a six year deal last year (worth $26.5 million), and he’ll make $3.5 million this year. Francoeur is projected to make roughly that next year once he’s arbitration eligible.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the process, a club can offer a contract to a player for the first three years of their big league career. If the player turns down the contract, the club can unilaterally renew their contract and assign them a salary.
The Braves and Francoeur remain far enough apart not to discuss a deal currently. Francoeur is expected to be looking for a deal somewhere in the range of 5-6 years for $50-60 million. We’ll see what the Braves respond with, but I think they should lock him up while they can. Just because we have outfielders galore in the farm system doesn’t mean we should just ditch Francoeur after a few season as fan favorite.
Francoeur won’t negotiate contract details during the season as he wants to focus on baseball. We probably won’t hear more about this until next offseason. In the meantime, let’s hope the Braves come up with a package he’ll sign for.
Tags: Jeff Francoeur
Posted in General, Roster Moves | 4 Comments »
By Jonathan on Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
As far as I’m concerned, Francoeur is worth the money to keep in Atlanta. He’s a fan favorite, a local boy, and has an amazing arm in right field on top of all of that. He most definitely is the most underpaid outfielder in the league in my opinion, but that will change without a doubt at the end of this season and he’ll start earning the money deserving of his talent. He’s another one we need to lock down in a multi-year contract to help anchor the team into the future.
By Smitty on Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
Being a fan-favorite is one thing. But being touted as the face of the franchise is quite another. The front office has only reinforced the perception that Jeffrey, once Chipper is gone, is Mr. Brave.
But for them to pay him minimum wage for three years is pretty much standard isn’t it? I don’t think any slight was intended.
I think McCann’s contract was a special case given how hard it is to find a franchise power-hitting catcher.
Smitty
By Jonathan on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
As far as I'm concerned, Francoeur is worth the money to keep in Atlanta. He's a fan favorite, a local boy, and has an amazing arm in right field on top of all of that. He most definitely is the most underpaid outfielder in the league in my opinion, but that will change without a doubt at the end of this season and he'll start earning the money deserving of his talent. He's another one we need to lock down in a multi-year contract to help anchor the team into the future.
By Smitty on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Being a fan-favorite is one thing. But being touted as the face of the franchise is quite another. The front office has only reinforced the perception that Jeffrey, once Chipper is gone, is Mr. Brave.
But for them to pay him minimum wage for three years is pretty much standard isn't it? I don't think any slight was intended.
I think McCann's contract was a special case given how hard it is to find a franchise power-hitting catcher.
Smitty